ABOUT

  My 6am early start including stopping for gas right out of the gates (guess they forgot they were picking me up and going to Maasai Mara).

2nd stop was... read more heading NW from centre of Kampala (opposite way of Maasai Mara) to the office to get 2 tire covers that’s required to enter the park (no idea why they’re wasting my time to do this and it wasn’t done the night before + we waited for 30 minutes for Anthony to show up).

3rd stop was an hour outside of Kampala at a “cheap” gas station to actually fill up the tank.

4th stop was an issue with the back wheel that seemed to go away

5th stop was because the radiator was over heating (a local gave us some water)

6th stop was to exchange the $100 USD bill Anthony had given the driver for gas etc. I did the currency conversion myself because what kind of rate are you going to possibly get 3 hours outside of Kampala and who could possibly exchange that much!

7th stop was getting 3rd party insurance for me the tourist in the vehicle

8th stop was the battery connection that came loose because of all the bumps at high speed

9th stop was the radiator again

10th stop was to get the radiator fixed at a spot with a mechanic

The actual tour & hotels were great.
The only thing you need to worry about for the gorillas is getting there and back as it’s all cookie cutter/ same thing by all tour operators.

Ask for pictures of your vehicle, what year and model, last time it was serviced, any issues with the vehicle historically, what happens if it breaks down etc in the middle of no where.

Took us 13.5 hours to get there and soured the experience.

  Tony, our driver and tour guide, was absolutely wonderful. Not only is he a kind high-character person, he is very knowledgeable about Uganda and really took the time to answer... read more all of our questions. Tony took the time to go the extra mile to ensure our entire trip was special, and to show us his culture and beautiful country. Every minute, from when arrived early to pick us up to when he helped us with our luggage at the airport at the end of our trip, we felt completely taken care of by Tony. Friendly Gorilla Safaris was wonderful, from Anthony promptly responding to all of our emails and questions, to Tony making our trip great. Definitely recommend them!

The Gorilla hike was absolutely amazing and a once in a lifetime experience, I could not recommend it enough! You have to do this tour and you have to ask for Tony to make it even more wonderful.

A couple tips:
- Ensure that the hotel is close to where your permitted hike is located. I did not know that there are 5 locations where you can hike to see the Gorillas, depending on where your permit is for. Double check that the hotel you stay at is convenient to your permit hike site. Our hotel was the Rushaga Gorilla Havens Lodge, which was absolutely Wonderful and you can check out my review of them, and they are close to one of the hiking sites but it turned out that our permit was for another location so we had a 2 hour drive in the morning to get to our permit hiking site. It made for an especially early morning and a closer hotel to our hike would have been nice. Though the Rushaga really was wonderful.
- If there is a way to choose where you hike and what group of gorillas to see then you should 100% ask for the Nyakagezi group. That is the group we visited, and it was Amazing. The hike was only about 1.5 hour to see the family of gorillas which had 3 silverbacks and 2 babies. The rangers we were with were all lovely. They were so helpful to ensure we got amazing views and photos of the gorillas, and they answered all of our questions. We felt completely safe with them and had a wonderful time.

Once in a lifetime trip with our awesome tour guide Tony, definitely recommend it!!

  We initially wanted to visit Uganda and Kenya but due to an emergency change in our travel plan, we decided to go to Uganda only. The experiences we had were... read more more than we expected. I and my girlfriend really enjoyed the 3 days tour with Friendly Safaris. Our guide Ronald was very skilled and made sure we were totally satisfied.

The Uganda maize is something you MUST test when you visit Uganda.

We tracked gorillas from Rushaga which I find to be the best and most recommended region you should choose from.

thanks, friendly.

  Our guide/driver Tony was great and made our trip wonderful. He took the time to ear our meals with us to go over the trip plans and answer any questions... read more we had.

The gorilla hike was amazing and definitely recommend it, the rangers were really helpful and great. Once in a lifetime trip and recommend doing it with Tony and Friendly Gorilla Safaris, they made our trip memorable.

  What a trip of a lifetime this was! We’ve been on the 9 Day Uganda Adventure tour and I cannot praise it enough! We had the best of accommodations, the... read more food was delicious everywhere we went and every day was a different adventure in itself. We got to see the chimpanzees and gorillas from up close in their natural habitat, of course and been on amazing safaris that made us get a true taste of Africa and Uganda in particular. Many thanks to Anthony for the great organization of the tour and for his availability and swiftness in replying to my inquiries! Not the least, special shout out to Chris (one of the best guides I’ve met so far) – excellent driver, super accommodating with our requests, knowledgeable and responsible at all times. I highly recommend this tour and Chris most of all!

  Friendly Gorillas safaris was recommended to us by a friend. For sure, they did not disappoint. Right from the day inquiry response time to the execution time, the Anthony and... read more the team including Our guide Solomon was amazing. It made the trip really worthwhile. I Strongly recommend them 🙂